A person or business may have a number of methods of transmitting a document to another person or business located offsite from the sender. A courier system provides delivery confirmation that the document was received as well as assuring that the quality of the document stays the same as when the sender sent it. However, this method may take days to complete delivery and in the process may result in the use of large amounts of fuel thereby damaging the environment.
Fax machines, a LAN fax, or internet fax systems may provide instant delivery, but the quality may be lacking. Additionally, the sender would be sending the document to a machine rather than a person which may result in a lack of security. Specifically, an unintended recipient may see the document and take it or the information thereon before the intended recipient does so.
Emailing the document results in good quality, instant delivery, but is still not legally recognized. Specifically, it may be difficult to have a signed document that has been emailed to a recipient to be recognized officially as a properly signed document. Additionally, with email, in order to convert the email into printed output the recipient would be prompted to take additional steps to do so.
Cloud based systems also may transmit documents that are not legally recognized and further fail to address properly similar security concerns as those experienced with fax machines. Additionally, the features available under a cloud based system may not be universally available to all users and may rely on a secure pull-print system being deployed at the recipient's site.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.